After an extended break, here is a video of various compositions in Raga Pilu (Piloo) that I recently had the opportunity to play:

Pilu, like Bhairavi, is an evergreen raga, and brings together the joy and sadness of love in its mood…

Pilu is used in a variety of “thumris” – semi classical compositions which sing about the waiting for one’s true love… with hope (natural notes) alternating with sadness (minor notes)… for example, one famous composition in Pilu (called a Dadra) is:

“Barsan Lage Saawan Bundiya Raja” [Many monsoons go by my love]

Tore Bina Lage Na Mora Jiya [My heart pines without you]

Rendered by countless semi classical and Bollywood singers, this is exactly the kind of composition which brings out the character of Pilu.

The structure of Pilu alternates between phrases which stress hope and joy and phrases where the same hopes are dashed and recede into sadness. This mesmerising mix of emotions makes Pilu an eternal source of joy and sadness – the definition of human emotion. Skilled musicians in Pilu often draw this out, inventing a myriad ways of portraying this struggle.

I was once told by an audience member that Pilu feels like a conversation where someone is telling the story of their love.

While the vast body of work in Pilu is of the romantic variety, it has been successfully adapted to other forms e.g

“Mere Angane Me Tumhara Kya Kaam Hai” – a popular song from the Bollywood film

Laawaris (1981) sung by and filmed on popular actor Amitabh Bachchan.

and also:

“Saare Jahan Se Accha Hindostan Hamara” – [Our country – Hindustan – is the best in the world] -a very popular patriotic song composed in Urdu by Poet Mohammed Iqbal and set to Pilu by Pandit Ravishankar, which is a fixture at National events in India and also used as a march by the Indian Army.

Mishra Pilu

The world Mishra (which means -Mixed) is used to denote variants to the raga which are acceptable but not formalised. In many ways, affixing Mishra to a raga means that the raga will be extended in directions which are not part of the core raga. It must be kept in mind that Mishra usually is used for light ragas (e.g. you cannot have Mishra Marwa or Mishra Darbari).

Mishra Pilu allows musicians to add tasteful, subtle and aesthetically pleasing phrases to core Pilu. In doing so, they may use notes that Pilu doesn’t usually use. In the performance above, I have played a composition which uses the Tivra Ma which is not used in Pilu. These notes have to be sparingly used to embellish tastefully. Calling a raga Mishra is not an open invitation to wreck the core emotion of the raga by adding whatever you feel like !

In this Mishra Pilu, I end up using all 12 notes in various compositions.

The first one is Pilu Jungla, which used to be played by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan last century

The second one again is vintage Ustad Amjad Ali Khan – a terrific composition using the komal dha which is no longer heard commonly.

Barwa, is a raga similar to Pilu. There are two schools of Barwa : one which uses the shuddha gandhar (ga) and one which doesn’t. I’ve opted for the former.

Some Shahajahanpur compositions – I did not play a popular composition from Shahjahanpur players composed by Pt Buddhadev Dasgupta who interpreted a song composed by Tagore in Pilu called “Shedin dujone” as I wanted to focus on compositions not usually heard in the public domain….

Then onto some more serious compositions from sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan who composed a technically challenging piece where the first section (sthayi) has no gaps, the second one (manjha) has a gap of 1 beat between key phrases and the last one (antara) has a gap of 2 beats between phrases all perfectly landing correctly in the end…

It is a challenge for tabla players to hang on to the beat as the instrumentalist goes off in a completely different cycle.

I performed with Nicolas Buff (Saxophone) and Pandurang Torvi (tabla) at the Temple in Melbourne. We played Raga Gorakh Kalyan in Jhaptaal (10 beats) and Teentaal (16 beats)

We had no time to meet and practice, so resorted to sending each other sound clippings recorded on the phone ! The composition below is originally from sarod maestro Pandit Buddhadeb Dasgupta as communicated by his senior disciple sitar virtuoso Pt Sugato Nag…. I’ve played the full composition including the antara, which is usually missing in other recordings of this piece.
Gorakh Kalyan (a raga with a curious name since it has no obvious relationship with the Kalyan group of ragas such as Yaman Kalyan, Shyam Kalyan, Shuddha Kalyan or Puriya Kalyan) is a raga of peace… and is especially suited for the sarod.

Here is a small clip of the performance: (pls excuse the sound quality)
Due to the acoustics of the venue, the sound is raw.

At a recent concert by a visiting vocalist (Shri Kuljit Singh Sangar), he sang a fast 16 beat composition in Bageshri. I heard it and then went about my own business, but the composition stayed with me mentally.

A few days later, I was able to take the gist of the composition and translate it to the sarod. I initially thought I’d come up with a new composition based on the above khayal, but later on it turned out that I had actually made a similar composition with a similar structure.

Here is the composition: This is a good example of how compositions can emerge based on mulling a raga over in your head: